Donahoe, J. W. (2004).
Ships that pass in the night.
Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
82, 85-93.
A major source of tension between Staddon's The new behaviorism and Baum’s
Review is that the former was written for a general audience but the latter evaluates
it as a technical work. Be that as it may, the central issue–Skinner's conception of
the role of theory in behavior analysis–is inadequately portrayed in both the book and
the review. The two primary sources of difficulty arise from failures to honor Skinner’s
distinction between experimental analysis and interpretation and to appreciate Skinner’s
views on events that are not observable at the behavioral scale of measurement.
Key words: conceptual nervous system,
interpretation, reinforcement theory, theoretical behaviorism